Marvelous Mystery
MYSTERY-FREE ACTIVITY SHEET SENT AS A DOWNLOAD AFTER PURCHASE
To earn the Marvelous Mystery Award complete 4 activities. Choose requirements that are age appropriate.
- Attention all detectives: We have a missing number. He is even. He has an older sister who is 4. Can you identify him? A number is missing. It was last seen around the middle of the number line. It has five tens, is odd, and is smaller than fifty-three. Who is it?
- What happens when you hold a book up to a mirror? Why does it happen?
- Trail Mystery: Plan a special outdoor activity. Learn some outdoor skills that will help you explore out beyond your neighborhood.
- Mystery Message: Do you know what Morse Code is and how it is used? Read a coded message. Make up your own code, you and a friend may exchange coded messages.
- Mystery Prints: Learn how to fingerprint. With help from an adult, fingerprint yourself. Many communities have programs to fingerprint children, does yours? Look at your fingerprint and compare your print to someone else’s.
- What Am I?: Play the game “Twenty Questions.” What kinds of questions did you ask? A detective needs to ask the right questions to solve a mystery.
- Mystery Pictures: Make rubbings of at least three things. Have others try to guess what objects you used
- Solve a science mystery. Choose an experiment to conduct. (i.e. Soda Fountain:) Baking soda is an important ingredient in the preparation of cookies, biscuits, and cakes. It is also important in making a "soda fountain." Pour two cups of water into a tall bottle. Dissolve one tablespoon of baking soda and a few drops of liquid detergent in water. Pour in a few tablespoons of vinegar. What happens? The chemical reaction produces tiny soap bubbles. In cooling, the gas bubbles in the dough make the final baked goods lighter in texture.
- Learn how a detective interviews people by asking who, what, where, when, and how. Find out why a journal or diary is valuable to a detective's work.. Play three cooperative games. Learn why cooperation is so important to the games and solving mysteries.
- Invite someone who is a police detective or a private investigator to talk to your group. Find out what education/training is necessary. What is the average salary? What is an average work day like? Any other questions you would like to ask?
- With the help of the police detective or private investigator, dust for and lift a fingerprint. Find out how to measure a footprint and tire track. Find out how this type of evidence is used in solving crimes.
- Play this "Murder Mystery" game: Use as many playing cards as there are players including the ace of hearts and the two of clubs. (Must have at least four players.) Shuffle the cards and pass one out to each player. Do not tell anyone what card you have. The person holding the ace of hearts is the "murderer"; the detective is holding the two of clubs. The detective turns off the lights and leaves the room. Everyone moves around the darkened room. The "murderer" gently taps a victim on the head. The victim screams and falls to the floor. The detective enters the room and turns on the lights, everyone freezes. The detective questions the players who must tell the truth, except for the "murderer" who must make up an answer to every question. The game ends when the detective correctly identifies the "murderer." OR host a Murder Mystery Party. OR follow a mystery trail.